LÖVE

Having some minimum and enforceable standards in the Projects and Demos section should really be a thing. Too many posts contain too little information about what is going on or why we should care. I propose a set of three basic standards to be included in the body of the first post of any new thread:
I propose a set of standards based on the content of the post:

Playable Projects

• A working .love file, preferably a forum upload but a link would be fine as well
• An explanation of controls, or indication that controls are explained in the game
• At least one screenshot that is not a title screen

Proof of Concepts

• A general idea of what your project is about
• Some form of additional media, be it a mock-up, storyboard, or prototype

Libraries

• The code of the library, either in a code block or some organized form (Github, Bitbucket, etc)
• A .love containing a working example of at least some features of the library

I don't think this is too much to ask. Suggesting it in the section 'read before posting' rules isn't really helping. I suppose moderating each post before it is allowed would be a bit heavy handed, but how else could we enforce minimum standards?

Looking for ideas and discussion.

I don't think providing a .love (or any sort of download) should be an absolute requirement. The subforum is not just for providing playable downloads.
Take http://love2d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16425 as an example.

I don't think there should a minimum standard for the Project section, maybe just a description of the game would be nice?

I've updated the original post to reflect ideal standards based on topic content. I realize not every post in P&D is playable.

Ensayia wrote:I've updated the original post to reflect ideal standards based on topic content. I realize not every post in P&D is playable.

I like the updated post more.

I honestly don't see a problem with the Projects and Demo's section of the forums, it's not like there are hundreds of posts every hour or anything.

baconhawka7x wrote:I honestly don't see a problem with the Projects and Demo's section of the forums, it's not like there are hundreds of posts every hour or anything.

Posts like...
http://love2d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=686 (no explanation, broken)
http://love2d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=33203 (no example LOVE)
http://love2d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=42596 (no screenshot or example of controls)
http://love2d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=42439 (no LOVE file)

...are examples of posts with incomplete information. Only the first one is a real extreme example, but this is what I dug up on just the first page.

Is this really such a big problem around here? I mean, I've not been around here for too long, but it doesn't seem to me that it would happen too often that someone uploads no .love or doesn't explain how you'd get it to work. But even then, a simple reminder from someone and the problem is solved with no real effort.

On top of that, I really don't think there should be strict rules to providing information since leaving some information to be discovered by your audience can be a powerful tool of marketing too! Enforcing too much can make it really difficult to surprise or to make your audience interested in your project.

Ensayia wrote: Suggesting it in the section 'read before posting' rules isn't really helping.

I don't think there even is a "read before posting"-thread in the project-section. Or, if there is, nobody is reading it because nobody can find it...

I don't believe that this is the correct way to go about things. If a new löver wishes to share their project but does so ineptly we should teach them how rather than punish them. All it takes is a link to the wiki or something, and the post would likely be updated quickly as they're probably checking on it often in excitement. If the post contains too little information, is that so bad? For yourself, it's just a case of hitting the back button. For them, well, they undersold themselves, they should have done a little research (5 minutes looking at some posts in P&D?).

Xrott wrote: I don't think there even is a "read before posting"-thread in the project-section. Or, if there is, nobody is reading it because nobody can find it...

Whoops, it looks like the post I was referring to was in Support and Development.

Perhaps creating said post would be a good idea then?